I recently read a blog post that called for the end of console exclusive games. That would be bad for the industry and so bad for us.
What’s the Difference?
Exclusives are the main reason people choose consoles when we move past loyalty. OK, so maybe you brought a Xboxone because you have a loving relationship with Microsoft but not everyone is so brand loyal or lonely.
Oh Xbox.. you’re the ONE for me ..Ha..ha..
When the Xboxone and the PS4 launched, the main thing making them different was their exclusives. Did you want to play Titanfall and Ryse? or Knack and Infamous? be a little disappointed or be a little disappointed but with a blue box to carry and not a green one?
I have to Green box… but I wanted the Blue one..
Without these games what do gamers base a decision on other than loyalty? Prices are the same, and non exclusives are available on both.
Once you have chosen which side you fall on chances are most people will then stay with the one console and then that company can market to you and milk you like a gaming cow. And if you do own both of the Big consoles one will be mainly used for the exclusives it has on it, other wise whats the point? Who wants two version of every game.. that’s just crazy…..CRAZY..right?
Exclusive games for some, Shattered dreams and tears for others.
For developers focusing on just the one console means that they have the opportunity to push that particular console, with its particular abilities to its limits. Explore its architecture what it can do, what it can’t do and come out with some really good stuff (The last of us). When games are put across platforms errors can occur, problems arise , factions are formed people get upset and cry.
The Playstation 3 was famously notorious for this with Bethesda, who couldn’t give its players DLC till after the Xboxone because it was so difficult to programme for. The games were great but as a PS3 owner you couldn’t help but feel a little left behind. Even for games which are across all the consoles, exclusives might prove to be a selling point, or prompt someone who as more than one console to purchase on a particular model. Soul Calibur two, PS2 – Heihachi Jesus Xbox – Spawn – Gamecube – Link. If you were one of the 7 people to own a Gamecube and one of the other two consoles , you would be buying that game on it for Link and his Linky goodness.. because Fuck Heihachi its a competition with swords…not fists…
Some people reading this will never have seen one.. the mythological Gamecube.
That was a mighty fine business we had once.
As we just mentioned them, Nintendo survive by exclusives… and hand helds.. but hand helds that are made stronger by the exclusive tittles that they have. Many comments have been made on Nintendo’s lack of third party support, including by me but there exclusives are the reason people buy Nintendo home consoles, realistically its main reason. Sure the WIIU is cheaper, but what good is cheap if there the games are rubbishy ? its a secondary console, that console you go to when you’re bored of you’re main console.. you go to faces you know Zelda, Mario, faces you can’t see any where else.Like going back to that terrible bar you’ve drunk in for years, sure you know you have that fancy bar you like but you’re bored of it, you fancy something different, so you go back to your old faithful and put up with the smell of wee
Just look at that terrible Posture
These are the main reasons I feel exclusives still have a place with us. if its a reason to split consoles apart as they slowly become the same thing in a different case, an extra reward if you will for having that game on a certain console or to allow Nintendo the chance to have any games at all on its home consoles. I will however say this. as the consoles, age, mature and have owners exclusive do become slightly less important, people have picked their path. If as a games company you do go to doing exclusive do us, the gamers a favour.. don’t do a trilogy of games make two exclusive, one not.. and the one that isn’t the one in the middle… Dead Rising you piece of crap.
rumblefeature 